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Why Strategists Need to Be Critics, Even When It Comes to Nike

It’s hard to walk away from a conversation with our SVP of Intelligence without learning something. David Gutting is a career ad-man with such whip-smart opinions on just about everything, Little Black Book, an e-zine celebrating creativity, calls him an influencer.

(Proud to know you, Mr. Gutting)

Most recently, the self-described contrarian turned 728 words into an LBB think piece on why a good creative strategist must also be a critic. He demonstrated exactly how by poking at the inner workings of both the movie Boyhoodand Nike’s recent ad campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick. He even ties it up neatly at the end as only he could do with a call to action:

“Strategists need to speak out: You are there to apply the consumer’s eye to creative work before the consumers will ever get to see it. You owe it to both brand and consumers to bring them closer together.”